Point of View and Narrative Perspective Flashcards

Grade 8 · English · Flashcards

Review the types of narrative perspective and key terms for analyzing how stories are told.

Flashcards

Point of view (POV): The perspective from which a story is narrated — who is telling it and how much they know.
First-person POV: A character inside the story narrates using 'I' — intimate but limited to that character's knowledge.
Second-person POV: The narrator addresses the reader as 'you' — rare in literary fiction, very immersive.
Third-person limited: Uses he/she/they; narrator has access to one character's thoughts only.
Third-person omniscient: Uses he/she/they; narrator knows all characters' inner lives and all events.
Third-person objective: Uses he/she/they; reports only external actions and dialogue — no inner thoughts.
Unreliable narrator: A narrator whose version of events is distorted by bias, limited knowledge, or deception.
Reliable narrator: A narrator who tells the truth as accurately as their knowledge allows.
Narrative perspective: The vantage point and knowledge level that determines what information the reader receives.
Bias: A tendency to favor one viewpoint unfairly, which can make a narrator unreliable.
Interior monologue: A character's inner thoughts presented directly to the reader, used in first-person or third-limited POV.
Frame narrative: A story within a story — an outer narrator introduces an inner narrator's tale (e.g., a character telling a story).